Minnesota: 1,200 ways to make government better

Unsession Delivers 1,200 Ways to Make Government Work Better

• Making Sense of State Government. This March, Gov. Dayton signed an executive order directing all state agencies to use commonly-used language, write in clear and concise sentences, and present information in a format that is easy-to-understand for Minnesotans. Since signing that executive order, thousands of state employees have received plain language training and numerous plain language projects are underway across the administration.
• Improving Efficiency, Reducing Wait Times. Because of major reforms implemented by the Dayton administration in 2011, 97 percent of all job-creating business permits are approved by state agencies in less than 150 days. This session, the governor signed new legislation reducing those wait times for most businesses to just 90 days. An estimated 11,000 of the 15,000 permit requests the state receives from businesses each year are expected to be completed within the new 90-day goal.
• Making Taxes Simpler. New tax cuts signed into law by Gov. Dayton are saving taxpayers time and money. Aligning state tax law with new federal credits and deductions for students, families, and seniors has made taxes simpler for more than one million middle class Minnesotans.
• Cleaning Up the Books. State government agencies are responsible for implementing, interpreting, and enforcing thousands of pages of Minnesota laws. But many of those pages were filled with outdated, unenforceable laws, and technical jargon that was nearly impossible to understand. To make government easier to understand, this session Gov. Dayton and the legislature eliminated over 1,100 obsolete, redundant, and incomprehensible statutes.